Jim Palmer's Blog, page 50
December 14, 2013
When religion becomes pathology
Pathology is the scientific investigation of any deviation from a healthy or normal condition in the human body, mind and spirit. It is necessary to study abnormality in order to discover its source, its varieties, its stages, and its cure.
For the past several years I’ve been working with people in the area of religious pathology. I’m not saying that religion IS pathology but in many cases religious conditioning has led to abnormality deeply damaged their relationship with God, themselves, others, and life. Religious pathology causes abnormality in one’s body, mind, spirit, and can sabotage your life at every turn.
Here’s a sampling of the countless people who have contacted me to share their story.
A devoted an entire section to addressing religious pathology in: Notes from (Over) the Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering.
December 13, 2013
We are supposed to be feeling
“This human journey is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage just to feel. There are times when it seems it would be much easier to close off your heart, grow cold, and indifferent to the world, and stop feeling. Sometimes feelings catch you off guard, and they will not be denied. Let your feelings happen today. We are supposed to feel. Somewhere between resisting your feelings and attaching yourself to them, is this space of accepting them, feeling them, and then letting them go. It’s okay to feel what we feel. This is how we know we are alive. This is what it means to be human.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering
Get out of your head and into your life
Be careful of a spiritual life that is mostly mental – accumulating more and more information and knowledge, conceptualizing new and improved concepts, analyzing and debating this or that idea, latching on to the latest and greatest spiritual guru.
Instead, pick the simplest truth and earnestly embrace it, one moment at a time. Perhaps that truth is: I can choose happiness right now; I will see all things before me through eyes of love and compassion; I will be present in this moment by simply responding in whatever slight way the situation requires; or I will be mindful of the the way things really are, and the truth of who I am. Have the resolve to live these simplest things. This is the wise and enlightened person.
December 12, 2013
20 Ways to Deepen Your Spirituality
20 Ways to Deepen Your Spirituality:
1. Make peace with your religious past.
2. Take responsibility for your spiritual journey.
3. Dissolve the line between “sacred” and “secular”.
4. Listen to and trust your inner voice.
5. Look past the labels and differences, and relate to the deepest reality in other human beings.
6. Stop making your humanity wrong.
7. Don’t strive to achieve or build a persona around being an enlightened person or spiritually superior.
8. Become a geologian – exploring the rhythm and flow of life in relationship to the phenomena of the physical world.
9. Expand what it means to be “present” – explore your spiritual aura and energy.
10. Address the root of your suffering.
11. Awaken and live from your inner passion.
12. Explore the connection between spirituality and sexuality.
13. Expand your relational world beyond religious sub-culture.
14. Don’t create a new religion out of your latest discovery.
15. Assume every human being knows something you need to know.
16. Don’t latch onto the latest guru – learn from everybody but consider yourself to be your own guru.
17. Read something other than spiritual/religious books.
18. Explore a new outlet for creative expression.
19. Do something that brings you delight.
20. Explore the pleasure of human touch with your partner.
Your spiritual path
Your life is your spiritual path. It’s what’s right in front of you.
What will I gain when I become enlightened?
“To be enlightened is only to find what you never lost, to become what you have always been, to see what is already there, and to accept what you have always known.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering
That awkward moment when….
“That awkward moment when you discover that what you’ve been seeking through all your effort can’t be attained by seeking or effort.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering
December 11, 2013
The obstacle getting in the way
“Jesus was forever picking a fight with religion. Maybe it was because religion claimed to be the proper way to know God, when actually it was often the obstacle getting in the way.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering
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God doesn’t send people to hurt you
I often come across things people say about God, and I keep a Top Ten List of those that seem the most absurd.
I read something this morning that I’m pretty sure is gonna make it into my Top Ten.
The statement was: “God doesn’t give you the people you want, he gives you the people you need. To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you, and to make you the person you were meant to be.”
First off, the part of the statement that reads “God doesn’t give you the people you want” is an insult. It might as well be translated as follows, “You are not capable of determining what is good for you. Anything you want is childish and bad. God knows better than to listen to your foolish and silly needs and desires.”
Secondly, God does not send people into your life to hurt you. The pain we inflict upon one another in this world is the result of spiritual ignorance. The idea that God sends hurtful and abusive people into our lives to teach us something or make us grow is not true, and absurd. I certainly hope that all the adult survivors of child abuse, of which I am one, don’t happen across the above statement.
